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Waveform Drive
"Please Doctor, do tell us, if the ship's thrust is generated by microwaves, what are the crew going to use to cook their frozen burritos?" ~Un-named scientist during a lecture on the EM Drive ---- How it works Perhaps one of the least understood focused thrust forms of Sublight engine is the Waveform drive. Composed of a sealed resonant cavity system with one end tapered and the "exhaust" end flared, the system imposes highly charged waves of energy (Usually a combination of several along with Microwave type) into the chamber where the waves provide thrust. It is stated that a combination of the waves expanding to fill all the available space creates a higher concentration of them at the wider end which provides thrust, as well as a increase in pressure from their contracting at the smaller end directs tangental force of the waves pressing against the sides back towards the other end of the drive. Thus increasing the force of thrust in that direction. This Resonance chamber type of drive has been the subject of some ridicule in most cultures when it is first proposed, due to many of the physics involved being a combination of so simple and advanced at the same time that it seems to make no sense. Though whether you have the physics to explain it or not the Drive provides motive force to a great many ships through the cosmos, so it works. A lot of Xeno-sociologists have noted that development of a Type of Waveform drive seems to be a vital link between directed thrust propulsion systems and more advanced Gravimetric systems. ---- Benefits & Drawbacks The cost of Fuel and powering the system is a prime benefit, since it is a closed system the energy used is converted into thrust on a scale of great efficiency. So long as the wave emitters are functional and the power source remains active the drives can operate nearly indefinitely. There is likewise no expulsion of matter or particles or other things that are directed out of the vessel, the only byproducts are thrust and heat. Making the drive quite friendly to all environments. Sturdiness is another key thing, The drive being a sealed system with only energy input in the form of the produced waves means there are far fewer moving parts or systems that need constant upkeep. The initial thrust provided, however, is not nearly as great as it is once the engines have had a chance to get the ship moving and the system "Charged" to capacity. The waves filling the cavity will expand and contract and move to fill up the area, however the initial thrust till they reach a saturation point is quite small. Engaging a Waveform drive rarely will produce immediate thrust as the thrust force has to overcome inertial forces of the mass at rest. This also leads to a problem of the thrust still being applied until the drive itself has "cooled" enough to stop producing thrust from the waves within the resonance chamber, which means for a amount of time dependent on the size of the chamber the engines will still be providing motive thrust and thus the craft will continue to accelerate in a vacuum even after the power is cut till it has "cooled" enough to reach a neutral balance internally. ---- Advanced Waveform Drive Referred to as the Dynamic Drive Considered a type of waveform drive, though it's mechanics are a bit like a hybrid of wave drive, Ramscoop accelerator and Ion propulsion. Ionized particles are fed into a Looped accelerator that accelerates them to a high velocity along a drive path. These accelerated charged particles are then fed into a similar thrust apparatus the standard Waveform drive uses, where the charged particles react like waves and provide thrust in a similar fashion, where the highest density of the charged material is at the tapered end which likewise forces the thrust to project towards the wider end. At the larger end a collector attracts the Ionized material (Which still holds a charge but is responding more like a particle having expended the excess energy in thrust) draws it back to where it regains some of the removed charged particles from when it first entered the accelerator and returns it back to the beginning of the cycle to be used as "fuel" again. This type of sealed system provides a nearly fully replenishable fuel source (The material used as the Ionic accelerant is constantly being recycled with negligible losses over decades of use) Requires more in the way of power use than the standard Waveform Drive, but also provides significantly more thrust for the power applied. It has some of the same problems of going from a cold start to full thrust as the standard Waveform drive, but offers a way to keep the ionized particles from reaching the full speed and bypassing the Resonance chamber and simply being looped back around to the start of the engine cycle, effectively lowering the amount of time to go from standby to full thrust. Though even with the bypassing the Resonance thruster would still provide thrust once charged till it has finished "cooling down".